Chinwag Live: dark side of social media

Despite the hype there are downsides to social media - virtual problems are invading our real lives, or is it vice versa..?

Identity theft, scurrilous accusations, libel, stalking, scams and even violence. Social media, once hailed as the great new "Naked Conversation" where the planet would talk to itself in a spirit of open debate and companies would 'crowd source' fantastic new products, is starting to turn sour.

High profile bloggers like Rachel From North London and Kathy Sierra have been stalked online. Teenagers are finding out the downside to having a MySpace page as cyber-bullying takes off.

Brands are finding that their carefully crafted marketing campaigns are being remixed and mashed-up in a way they never intended. Political sites are swarmed with negative comments. Comment spam is hampering open debate. Splogs are stealing content. Social Media is turning out to have a very unsocial dark side. What can be done about it?

Can an online code of conduct have a hope of succeeding? Will freedom of speech be affected? How can organisations prevent their interactions with social media from backfiring? Chinwag Live: The Dark Side of Social Media will look at all these questions with a panel of experts.

Where Are The Pictures?

Photographic evidence from the Dark Side of Social Media event, if you've got photos you'd like to add, let us know.

www.flickr.com



Speakers

Luke Razzell - Identitologist and Entrepreneur, weaverluke
Luke Razzell, aka "weaverluke", is an identitologist, an important-sounding word he recently made up to describe someone who thinks, talks and writes about identity. He blogs about identity and co-founded the Identity Society forum. Luke is also a social web entrepreneur, currently developing a widgety service for pro bloggers.

Tim Ireland - Online Marketing & SEO Consultant, Bloggerheads
Tim is an online marketing consultant and activist who specialises in the relationship between community activity and search engine results. Having investigated weblog technology and engaged with the online community via weblogs for over 5 years, Tim has successfully campaigned for Tony Blair to be accessible by email, produced the first weblog by a Labour MP (Tom Watson) and the first weblog by a Conservative MP (Boris Johnson) and developed the tactical voting website Backing Blair. He is currently working on National Service, a non-partisan project designed to recruit bloggers and motivate them to do more for their community.

James Cherkoff - Director, Collaborate Marketing
James is editor of the Modern Marketing blog. He contributes to the FT, BBC, Independent, Observer, Business Week and Ad Age, speaks at events including MIT and consults about networked media in Europe and the US. James lives in Hackney, and can mostly be found watching Arsenal FC, drinking Rioja, and playing peek-a-boo. James thinks the dark side of social media isn't very dark at all.

Mike Barrett - Director, Compound Media
As Operations Director for CNET Networks, Mike was responsible for the team that designed and built the social networking and user generated content platform now deployed internationally. In 2007 Mike founded Compound Media to provide strategic on-line consulting on content, search and social media platforms to a wide range of businesses from on and off-line publishers through to retailers.

Cristiano Ventura - Business Manager, Windows Live Spaces, Microsoft
Cristiano started in 2005 as Marketing Manager for Messenger and Spaces and later on moved into his current role. Before joining Microsoft, Cristiano was Business Development Director at Universal McCann Interactive EMEA in London. His clients included L'Oreal, Motorola, AMD and Microsoft. Before moving to the UK, he held various positions as Marketing and Communication manager for different Italian companies.

Chair: Mike Butcher - Journalist & Events Content, tbites.com



Media Sponsors:

Chinwag Live's new Media Sponsor is CNET Networks UK, the company behind silicon.com and ZDNet UK.

ad:tech - undoubtedly the leading new media trade show for the marketing industry.

What Is Chinwag Live?

Chinwag Live is a new series of events from the Chinwag community established to cast an enquiring light on trends in the digital media industry.

Founded with the purpose of lifting the lid on the issues facing practitioners and enterprises right across the sector, it aims to tackle topics in the full spirit of community participation in a formal, relaxed setting and be a connecting force for ideas and talent.

We specifically chose venues that are small, intimate and friendly to create an atmosphere where everyone can feel comfortable participating. Unfortunately, this also means that space is limited, so it's best to book early.

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Want to reach the leading thinkers, do-ers and spenders working with new media and digital marketing? Why not drop our lovely sales gang a quick email? They'll be able to fill you in on all the details.

Contact Us

Queries? Comments? Suggestions? Points of View? We're always happy to hear them. Why not drop us a line:

email: live-at-chinwag-dot-com
phone: +44 (0)870 730 7313